“Put something on and we can turn down the heat!”

But let’s start with what I think is a simpler topic. Heat. 20 degrees in the living room, says the expert. I’m the only one who stays here longer anyway, in the home office I put on a sweater and socks if necessary, and when I watch TV there’s a blanket ready. To check. 23 degrees in the bathroom. An arm’s length is enough from the warm water jet to the cozy towel, so that you don’t freeze to death in between. To check. 17 degrees in bedrooms. I’m only in my bedroom to sleep anyway, I have two blankets and what feels like twelve pillows so no problem. To check.

But now to the heating problem areas in my house: the natural habitats of my pubescent teens in the house. When they are home, they only go to another room to eat. Given this fact, I decide that their bedrooms should be considered living rooms. So 20 degrees. According to the thermometer, Pubertier 1’s room is 21 degrees. “Can I decline it?” My daughter shrugs indifferently. The impact of Pubertier 2 comes out at no less than 25 degrees. And my son is sprawled on the bed in his shorts. “I’ll turn your heating down a bit, okay?” – « Spinsch? I just got home and was completely blown away on the moped. I’m cold, dude.” – «You lie here half-naked. Put something on and we can turn the heat down. That saves six to ten percent energy per degree, says the expert. – «Which expert?» – “It doesn’t matter. An expert is always someone who has an idea.” He sighs and climbs into sweatpants as I turn down his heating.

Now for the case of the tilted windows. Not possible at all, says the expert. If you ventilate with slanted windows, you let too much heat escape to the outside. Much better: open all windows completely for five to ten minutes three times a day. OKAY. Problem number one: we live on the ground floor. And we have a very curious neighbor cat. Which isn’t much of a problem during the day. But when I open the windows all the way at night, I have to check everything before bed to make sure I haven’t trapped that cat. And she has scratched my bedroom door more than once in the middle of the night because she was somehow there, despite my utmost caution. I’ve wondered several times if she can shine…

Cat or not, in the kitchen, living room and my bedroom, airing for ten minutes three times a day is now the order of the day, in the bathroom every time someone takes a shower. It’s a bit much to ask of the teens to think for themselves — they’ve got sooooo much on their mind already — so I sprinted to the bathroom after one of them showered.

Problem number two: the teen rooms. Both children continued to tilt their windows. Once I carefully ask teenagers if they can ventilate properly three times a day and otherwise close the windows instead of tilting them. “Yes, but the rabbits…” says the child. “There are only two options: you also manure or we move them to the basement.” (Like I’d let that happen, but my daughter doesn’t need to know that.) She closes the window with a groan. When I wake her up the next morning, she’s already crooked again. “I thought I was choking that night,” she says apologetically. Meanwhile, Teenie 2 simply refuses to close the window. And honestly, I can’t blame him. Especially since my son has developed a taste for deodorants and perfumes that he puts on in his room. And there is still a problem with the dosage. He didn’t actually turn the heating back on before that.

We are working on it. The heating works quite well (even if one or the other teenager turns up the heating every now and then), I myself am used to airing the room now and then. The teenagers still keep their windows open when they are home. As soon as they leave the house, I open their windows, air them out, then close them. This means that they are usually just placed at an angle at night. But I hope that changes when it gets really cold.

Source: Blick